LOD: Green Light for Super Donors

In contrast to incentives for small donors (per Wednesday’s Link of the Day), the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision encourages limitless donations by corporations (and unions) for so-called independent expenditures. Texas Gov. Rick Perry is the latest candidate to benefit from this subterfuge, with the creation of a super PAC called “Americans for Rick Perry” that will supposedly operate completely independent of his campaign and consultants. It will solicit mega donations to advance Perry’s candidacy in Iowa and elsewhere. The Center for Responsive Politics is tracking the rise of super PACs across the political spectrum; unlike the 501(c)(4) vehicle, the public will at least get a glimpse of who’s donating to super PACs. The same news item about Perry also notes that traditional PAC contributions from labor unions are way down at this stage of the 2012 election cycle. In the 2010 cycle, union PACs gave a total of $60 million to federal candidates or one fifth the $300 million supplied by business PACs. Meanwhile, the IRS has backed away from exploring whether it will apply its normal gift tax rule to large donations to 501(c)(4) organizations, which are not charities. A donor giving over $13,000 to a group like Karl Rove’s super active Crossroads GPS could have faced a 35% excise tax, but now another agency is giving big political donors another green light to dominate US elections.